Speaking here at the World Congress on Population, Health and Development, the President estimated that the country needs to maintain annual population growth of 400,000 people over the next 20 years in order to be able to provide the services in place for seven decades.

“Some people are not aware of the seriousness of the challenge. Society and the state are paying the price,” he stressed.

El Sisi stressed that while having children is a freedom, it must be regulated to avoid a national disaster.

The ruler thus responded to Health and Population Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, who during his speech at the same forum pointed out that the state cannot impose a limit on the number of children because it is a matter of freedom.

The president pointed to China as an example of controlling population growth through its one-child policy.

Since 2000, Egypt’s population increased by 40 million to 105 million.

A total of 2,193,000 babies were born here in 2022, a slight increase of 0,4% over 2021.

In early February, the head of Egypt’s National Population Council, Tarek Tawfik, warned that the country’s population will reach 142 to 157 million people by 2050.

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